Whest 60Se Pro phono stage Spoiler alert. The Whest 60Se Pro phono stage has had its tweakability minimised. No, it’s not a one size fits all’, but it’s been designed absolutely with sound quality and listening as the first priorities. For that reason, if you want to swap cartridges out at a frantic pace you’re […]
3 Square Audio Ayal loudspeakers These 3 Square Audio Ayal loudspeakers should not do what they do. There. I’ve said it. I first heard and saw these diminutive Darth Vader-esque speakers at a recent audio show. I kept looking for… a larger speaker, a subwoofer, anything, but all I could find was this small, beautifully-finished, slightly unconventional-looking […]
Holoaudio Bliss Level 1 headphone amp/preamp With the Holoaudio Bliss Jeff Zhu’s approach to design is narrowing what once appeared to be an unbridgeable chasm between objectivists and subjectivists in the audio world. The brain behind Holoaudio is demonstrating that traditional, fully-discrete topologies not only have a place in subjectivists’ high-end systems but that they […]
BK XLS300 active subwoofer My take on the BK XLS300 has taken an inordinate amount of time to write. My life has been hectic of late and during any downtime that I’ve had, I’ve wanted to enjoy this product rather than sit down to write about it. But the time has finally come to commit […]
Auralic Altair G1.1 streamer DAC preamplifier The Altair G1.1 is priced to attract the serious entrant to the streaming audio game. It has the high build quality we associate with Auralic components and offers all the features that the modern audio enthusiasts requires for top flight entertainment without having to leave the listening seat. The least […]
PMC cor integrated amplifier “It is designed not to do anything” said the nice man as we discussed the arrival of the PMC cor integrated amplifier at Kelly Towers. He went on to explain that the design philosophy behind the cor (and yes, it meant to be all lower case) was that it should be […]
Network Acoustics Muon Pro Streaming System ethernet filter and data cable Long before anyone dreamt of a device like the Muon Pro it was assumed that the music data heading for our streamer was just that. To suggest that it might be accompanied by electronic pollution that was damaging to sonic performance was to invite […]
Pearl Acoustics Sibelius loudspeaker The Pearl Sibelius is a rather different loudspeaker to the run of the mill, and in more ways than one. What you notice is that there’s only one drive unit, what’s less obvious is that the cabinet is made of solid oak and that it has quarter wave loading. The latter […]
Cyrus Audio PSU-XR power supply The Cyrus PSU-XR is the latest in a long line of power supply upgrades for Cyrus, the Huntingdon, England based company were among the very first to offer this form of upgrade in the form of the original PSX model from the ‘80s. The PSX has since evolved into the […]
Ansuz Mainz8 A3 & Mainz A2 power distributor and cables Ansuz is adamant that power distribution should not involve conditioning, thus its Mainz8 distributors apply no filtering or regeneration of the incoming voltage. This is because doing so saps energy from the sound. Ansuz also believe that the mains distributor is the most important element […]
Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 loudspeaker The 705 S3 is the least expensive tweeter-on-top loudspeaker in Bowers & Wilkins 700 series which was relaunched in series 3 form last September. It replaced the CM series and added trickle down tech from the mighty 800 series Diamond with Continuum cones, Aerofoil bass drivers and Carbon dome tweeters. […]
Tangerine Audio Evenstar record stabiliser Tangerine Audio Evenstar is the latest creation from a company that’s dedicated to improving the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable (hereafter referred to as the LP12), a turntable that celebrated its 50th birthday in March. Many other competing products have come and gone in that time, but the LP12 sails on. […]